Karachi mayor Wasim Akhtar called on Sunday for a referendum to gauge the public response to the formation of Keamari district, claiming that neither the West district chairperson nor the district's residents were taken on board before the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)-led Sindh government went ahead with "bifurcating West district."
Indicating the deepening rift between the PPP on the one hand and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) - coalition partners in the federal government - on the other, his remarks came after he laid the foundation stone of a Rs200 billion development initiative in Orangi Town.
"The PPP has carved the new Keamari district out of Karachi's West district for political and monetary gains," he alleged, repeating the accusation that has been at the centre of MQM-P's criticism of the Sindh government's move to create a seventh district in the country's economic hub.
Continuing his tirade, the mayor added, "If the PPP considers Sindh its dharti maa [motherland], to us, all of Pakistan is our dharti maa and we will not allow anyone to dismember it."
Saying so, he compared PPP's move of making Keamari a new district to its policies in 1971, when the party was in power at the Centre and Bangladesh attained independence after the separation of East Pakistan.
"Everybody knows what the PPP did in 1971, but we won't let history repeat," he remarked, stressing that in a democratic setup, all stakeholders were taken onboard before a decision was finalised.
In the same instance, the mayor also justified the demand for carving out new administrative units out of Sindh, stating that "the Constitution allowed it."
The mayor also reiterated, for the umpteenth time, that the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation was unable to carry out any development work in the port city due to a lack of authority and funds.
Claiming that even Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had acknowledged that the KMC had not been duly empowered, he said, "The situation in Karachi would have been different had the power been rightfully devolved to the KMC."
He added that the metropolis would only be able to prosper when the local government was empowered.
Akhtar also complained about the provincial government maintaining hold over departments that generated revenue, demanding that all civic departments be given under the mayor's control.
Meanwhile, he said, the federal government had furnished Rs1 billion for development work in Karachi, elaborating that the funds had been allocated for launching four schemes, including the construction of a road from Sharae Orangi to Sharae Qaddafi. However, he added, sewerage lines would be laid before the construction of the road.
Saying that he would also take steps for the removal of encroachments, the mayor committed to completing the said schemes within four months, even after the end of his tenure.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 24th, 2020.
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